by the meltingpot: War as a rite of passage

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Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

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My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

This is the 3rd

Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Friday, October 09, 2015

War as a rite of passage

This story leads us to the soul-crushing state of affairs of the problem-land of small ethnic peoples.

However we wish that all the ethnic-based armies of Burma come to the negotiating table and sign the peace accord,that's in the realm of daydream right at the moment.With no peace accord in sight,the coming general election on the 6th Nov 15 would be a farce at the border areas.We have already seen signs of the coming farce when we read this story.

All said,all these are situated some distance from us.What about the soul-crsuhing problems of the affairs of small ethnic people near home?

The rumbling in Churachandpur district is a perfect example.Everybody is properly stunned by what's happening there right at the moment.All the samll ethnic communities in the district have genuine apprehension about the three bills?They are being swept by the clever machinations from New Delhi?They would oppose anything--regardless of merits or demerits--championed by the valley people?

So,which one of the above three points make a humble beginning to describe the present situation in Churachandpur?

Without even trying to answer the question,we can easily gauge the scale of intractable problem created by the interplay of the state of affiars of small ethnic peoples.But we cannot run away from the problem.We are right in the middle of the whole mess.

So,what's needed to be done?

First.let's go to an apprently unrelated event.Aung Sang Suu Kyi had given her first formal interview to Mr Karan Thapar.Being a first since she immersed herself into the mess called Burma,all the political observers were taken by surprise when she chose an Indian journalist for the honour.

But we are not surprised when we read this together with this post of mine.Suu Kyi made a public announcement to the whole population of India that its military is about to venture into military adventure inside Burma just on the eve of the general election on the 6th Nov 15.

And,NATO is embarking on the largest military exercise(since the Cold War) from the 3rd Nov 15.

And,Russian jets proclaimed to the whole world--'Come,we are ready'--when they tested the NATO airspace not once but twice,within the space of two days.

For the first time in the history of small ethnic peoples of this part of the globe,all the great militaries of the world are aligning their deployments for the coming operation along India-Burma border during the first week of Nov 15.We are not actually looking for the scale of the operation.Instead,we are more interested in the direction of impetus which is likely to be borne on the small ethnic peoples.The operation would serve as the proverbial spark which will force all these people to come out of their ethnic shells.

For thousand of years,all these peoples are comfortably cocooned within their ethnic shells.Great powers,like the massive deployments of time and energy by westernn missionaries have miserably failed to pry open this ethnic shells.Scholars and thinkers,within and outside,have toiled for generations to find ways to entice them away from these comfortable ethnic shells.But we see more and more ethnic-based armies sprouting all over the areas.These are the symptoms of the peoples not growing out of their adolescence.They need a rite for passage to manhood.

Now,some wise men and women are providing them with the much-needed rite of passage in the form of a terrifying war.They cannot escape this war.Either they willingly come out of their comfortable ethnic shells and fight it out like a grown up men or burnt to cinders by the flames of this war.

We would make history if the coming war pry open the thousand of years old and very confortable ethnic shells and make them all responsible adults out of the perrenially adoslescent state of affairs.

by the meltingpot

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This is the 3rd